Climate is right for tackling global warming

Dear Beth:

Thanks for encouraging young people to get involved with global warming issues. This is indeed the biggest challenge facing our future. In addition to the suggestions that you make about learning how to save energy at home and school, I hope you'll also remind your readers that the scale of the problem requires political as well as personal change. To find a group near you, check with Energy Action ( energyaction.net) , a youth-led national coalition. Organizations such as the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, US Public Interest Research Group, and Greenpeace offer opportunities for young people. Thanks again for getting the word out.

LOIE HAYES, ROXBURY

I totally agree with you about the importance of political action, and the time couldn't be better. We now have a new Congress with many representatives very concerned about what the United States must do to tackle climate change. They need to hear from all of us -- young and old alike.

As a columnist who has concerned herself with young people for more than 22 years, I think global warming is the most important issue facing our youth today.

We Americans have been let down by the current administration and our media until recently. We have some catch-up to do to fully understand the problem. We can no longer stand by and say, tomorrow I'll get involved. We must act today. If you need to know more, take the next hour to begin -- right now. Go to stopglobalwarming.org and listen to the many good audio tapes and watch its excellent videos. I guarantee you will be inspired to begin to take action in many different ways. (Also, fightglobalwarming.com is good.) Let's have a collective New Year's resolution to devote 10 percent of our weekly activities toward doing something to reduce global warming so our children can have happy new years many years from now!

Beth can be reached at askbeth@globe.com.

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